The Department of Community & Preventive Medicine at the University of Rochester is seeking continuation of the support provided by AHRQ's National Research Service Award (NRSA) program to its successful pre-doctoral and post-doctoral programs in health services research and policy. [unreadable] [unreadable] The mission of the pre- and post-doctoral programs in health services research and policy is to educate and train students and fellows to teach and conduct independent research of the organization, financing, delivery, quality and outcomes of health care services. Trainees are prepared for careers in academia, health care provider and managed care organizations in research and planning positions, and in government and policy analysis organizations. [unreadable] [unreadable] The training program emphasizes quantitative rigor in statistics, econometrics, economics and epidemiology and several specialized areas of research interests: health services for the elderly and long term care; health services for women and children; cost effectiveness and medical decision making; and performance of managed care and health care markets. [unreadable] [unreadable] Trainees in both the pre- and post-doctoral programs benefit from several initiatives that were developed in the last several years in the Department of Community & Preventive Medicine. These include the development of a data laboratory, initially funded through an AHRQ innovations grant, which offers fellows access to very rich data sources that allow study of important and AHRQ priority populations, including children, women and the elderly; the K30 awards program that resulted in development of specialized skill building courses such as grant writing and technical communication; the MPH for clinical investigators which is of particular relevance to post-doctoral fellows who wish to obtain more formal training; and the post-doctoral programs in Preventive Cardiology and Community Health Informatics. [unreadable] [unreadable] In recognition of the success of the training program, its importance to the institution, and in response to the need identified by NIH for highly trained and qualified health services researchers, the School of Medicine has increased its support and the size of the pre-doctoral program from two to six entering students. [unreadable] [unreadable]